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I am much more wary about buying from Amazon than most of my peers, who easily click and buy on a whim or out of habit. I went to buy a toy at a brick and morta

I am much more wary about buying from Amazon than most of my peers, who easily click and buy on a whim or out of habit. I went to buy a toy at a brick and mortar, and compared the price to Amazon while there - $12.99 in the store and $27.xx at Amazon! I think they've marketed them to be the low price leaders but that's definitely not the case. I'm also concerned about counterfeit products - I don't care as much about reviews because I'll usually have researched beforehand or already know what I want. However with brand name items, I always wonder if it's the real thing and as a result have stopped buying shoes, etc from Amazon. I also don't buy anything from Amazon that goes in my body or on my body (supplements, cosmetics/hygiene, etc). I stick with brick & mortar or the online storefront. It's unfortunate, because Amazon is fantastic as a concept, unfortunately my trust in them does not extend to most items. I'd rather pay more and be confident in the product. I think whatever they are doing is working for them and they have no incentive to change because the vast majority of customers are not so discerning.

bootlooped 9y ago
> $12.99 in the store and $27.xx at Amazon! Was this from a 3rd party seller? I have seen a lot of 3rd party sellers have listings for pretty outrageous prices. I think they're either trying to catch people who don't shop around / don't know what the product is worth, or they are just not managing their pricing well. On a lot of popular products you can see an example of the latter where Amazon themselves will be selling a product for a given price, and then if you look at other offers you'll see the same thing being sold by other sellers for double or triple Amazon's price.
- corvallis 9y ago
  I don’t remember if this was the exact link as this was several weeks ago. This was the toy: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00OYJNKJG/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1513458578&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=parking+garage+motor+max&dpPl=1&dpID=51q0rM-%2BYDL&ref=plSrch https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00OYJNKJG/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=...
  - jasonlotito 9y ago
    So yeah, 3rd party. Also, seems to be a reasonable online price. I'm sure you could find stuff locally, if you can find it. But unless I can find it and also buy the same one you found for the same price, it's not really the same thing.
    - corvallis 9y ago
      That’s not an accurate way to view this particular situation. I went to the store to look for a toy in a broad category (gender, age, price range). I saw this one that fulfilled my requirements, and I did a quick price check online just to compare, having little experience with this type of purchase. If I had been primarily shopping on amazon to begin with, I wouldn’t have even considered this toy due to it being out of my price range; and I would have gotten less value for the money spent. The point is more that Amazon can often have an unreasonable markup and people may not be fully cognizant of that. If they were, would their habits change?
    - corvallis 9y ago
      Like I said, that may not have been the exact link. I was just showing you the product. I was doing a quick price comparison and did not investigate who was offering it at that price back then. That link shows an even higher price than I remember seeing at the time.
kinkrtyavimoodh 9y ago
I don't think Amazon has marketed themselves to be low price leaders for a long time now. In fact, a lot of people around me know they pay a slight premium when shopping on Amazon, and do it nonetheless for the convenience it offers.
- jazoom 9y ago
  Amazon is saying they want to be a price leader in Australia. It's still definitely a tactic of theirs.
thisisit 9y ago
This is happening because people now assume Amazon's prices are the best - always. But, that is not the case. There are times where people are knowingly listing a product about market prices to catch people who are caught unaware. Once upon a time, I bought two boxes of Ener-G. It was only later I found out I have paid 100% markup on those boxes. I felt stupid that I hadn't verified the prices on the manufacturer's site.
- dsfyu404ed 9y ago
  People also do this with drop shipping. They'll scrape products from X and list them on Y for cost+markup then drop ship. Even if they use thin margins coupon codes and promotions from a customer rewards program do a lot of offset the occasional return that you can't pass up the line or order that happens after a price hike but before your scraping software can catch up. If you have a discount you can use that to undercut your competition and appear high up when people sort by price. You get a X% coupon code for some product from Y then scrape Y's online store and relist it on Z for retail less X plus your margin and costs. Fraudulently purchased gift cards can also be monetized through web scraping and drop shipping. When the cost difference is negligible I prefer to buy from drop shippers rather than have my payment info and PII sitting around in yet another database waiting to be stolen.
Spooky23 9y ago
This has been true for years. For many categories, Amazon pricing is awful. My wife heavily comparison shops, and Target/Walmart almost always comes out on top. During Christmas shopping, I’ve seen more than a few folks buying stuff at Toys R Us to sell on Amazon.
fencepost 9y ago
I've seen similarly high prices on office supplies of the sort that people would set up subscriptions for like toner. My expectation there is that someone hacked the price up in the hopes that those subscribers wouldn't notice.
astura 9y ago
Most toys sold by third parties are overpriced on Amazon in December. December is also a great time for coupons and sales from traditional retailers (you can still order online) so you're doubly getting hosed.

bootlooped 9y ago

> $12.99 in the store and $27.xx at Amazon! Was this from a 3rd party seller? I have seen a lot of 3rd party sellers have listings for pretty outrageous prices. I think they're either trying to catch people who don't shop around / don't know what the product is worth, or they are just not managing their pricing well. On a lot of popular products you can see an example of the latter where Amazon themselves will be selling a product for a given price, and then if you look at other offers you'll see the same thing being sold by other sellers for double or triple Amazon's price.

corvallis 9y ago
I don’t remember if this was the exact link as this was several weeks ago. This was the toy: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00OYJNKJG/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1513458578&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=parking+garage+motor+max&dpPl=1&dpID=51q0rM-%2BYDL&ref=plSrch https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00OYJNKJG/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=...
- jasonlotito 9y ago
  So yeah, 3rd party. Also, seems to be a reasonable online price. I'm sure you could find stuff locally, if you can find it. But unless I can find it and also buy the same one you found for the same price, it's not really the same thing.
  - corvallis 9y ago
    That’s not an accurate way to view this particular situation. I went to the store to look for a toy in a broad category (gender, age, price range). I saw this one that fulfilled my requirements, and I did a quick price check online just to compare, having little experience with this type of purchase. If I had been primarily shopping on amazon to begin with, I wouldn’t have even considered this toy due to it being out of my price range; and I would have gotten less value for the money spent. The point is more that Amazon can often have an unreasonable markup and people may not be fully cognizant of that. If they were, would their habits change?
  - corvallis 9y ago
    Like I said, that may not have been the exact link. I was just showing you the product. I was doing a quick price comparison and did not investigate who was offering it at that price back then. That link shows an even higher price than I remember seeing at the time.

kinkrtyavimoodh 9y ago

I don't think Amazon has marketed themselves to be low price leaders for a long time now. In fact, a lot of people around me know they pay a slight premium when shopping on Amazon, and do it nonetheless for the convenience it offers.

jazoom 9y ago
Amazon is saying they want to be a price leader in Australia. It's still definitely a tactic of theirs.

thisisit 9y ago

This is happening because people now assume Amazon's prices are the best - always. But, that is not the case. There are times where people are knowingly listing a product about market prices to catch people who are caught unaware. Once upon a time, I bought two boxes of Ener-G. It was only later I found out I have paid 100% markup on those boxes. I felt stupid that I hadn't verified the prices on the manufacturer's site.

dsfyu404ed 9y ago
People also do this with drop shipping. They'll scrape products from X and list them on Y for cost+markup then drop ship. Even if they use thin margins coupon codes and promotions from a customer rewards program do a lot of offset the occasional return that you can't pass up the line or order that happens after a price hike but before your scraping software can catch up. If you have a discount you can use that to undercut your competition and appear high up when people sort by price. You get a X% coupon code for some product from Y then scrape Y's online store and relist it on Z for retail less X plus your margin and costs. Fraudulently purchased gift cards can also be monetized through web scraping and drop shipping. When the cost difference is negligible I prefer to buy from drop shippers rather than have my payment info and PII sitting around in yet another database waiting to be stolen.

Spooky23 9y ago

This has been true for years. For many categories, Amazon pricing is awful. My wife heavily comparison shops, and Target/Walmart almost always comes out on top. During Christmas shopping, I’ve seen more than a few folks buying stuff at Toys R Us to sell on Amazon.

fencepost 9y ago

I've seen similarly high prices on office supplies of the sort that people would set up subscriptions for like toner. My expectation there is that someone hacked the price up in the hopes that those subscribers wouldn't notice.

astura 9y ago

Most toys sold by third parties are overpriced on Amazon in December. December is also a great time for coupons and sales from traditional retailers (you can still order online) so you're doubly getting hosed.